UT Austin spends $50M to help build world's largest telescope

The University of Texas at Austin will help build the world's largest telescope. On Friday, the UT System Board of Regents authorized UT to use $50 million of its research reserves to help construct the Giant Magellan Telescope, which will be built in Chile.

The total cost of GMT is an estimated $1.05 billion, and it is set to be completed in 2020. UT plans to contribute a total of $100 million to the project and will conduct a fundraising campaign to collect the other $50 million.

In return, UT will be among a select few universities and research institutions with access to the telescope. UT joins several astronomical research institutions and universities from around the world in funding the telescope's construction.

The combined size of the telescope's seven mirrors — an estimated 3,900 square feet — is about that of a basketball court. GMT will have six times the light-gathering power of the McDonald Observatory's Hobby-Eberly Telescope, and have the ability to produce images 10 times sharper.

"The Giant Magellan Telescope will be able to take images of previously undiscovered planets and determine if they are habitable," David Lambert, director of the McDonald Observatory, said in a statement. “If we succeed, I think the discovery of a series of habitable planets would be a landmark in human history.”